India approves the purchase of 36 Rafale – The Point

The indian government has approved Wednesday the purchase to France of 36 combat aircraft Rafale of the Dassault group, the largest export order for the combat aircraft French. At the end of almost a year and a half of tough negotiations between Paris and New Delhi, the government of Narendra Modi has thus paved the way to the end of a soap commercial at the centre of relations between the two countries.

“The contract was approved at a meeting tonight. It will be formally signed by the French Defence minister and his indian counterpart on 23 September in New Delhi,” said an official with the ministry of Defence of india and Agence France-Presse. The exact price of the transaction has not been officially revealed but according to the indian press in recent days, this figure fell to 7.87 billion euros.

A call for tender for 126 aircraft

That agreement, however, remains modest by comparison with what had been described at the start of the “contract of the century”. India had originally launched a tender for 126 combat aircraft, for which it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Dassault in 2012. But the order had never seen the light of day. New Delhi demanded in effect significant transfers of technologies, in order to boost its local industry, which would have created significant additional costs.

Came to power in 2014, in favor of political change, the new Prime minister of india had recognised the failure of negotiations and canceled the procedure. On the occasion of a trip to Paris in April 2015, Narendra Modi had announced his government’s intention to buy 36 Rafale ready to fly, negotiated in the framework of an agreement from state to State. Then, the negotiations were éternisées. Even a move of the president Hollande to New Delhi in January last had been able to bring the two parties to come to an agreement. France and India were then limited interim agreements, without succeeding to agree on the financial terms.

After a difficult start to export, the Rafale had found a taker in 2015 in Qatar and Egypt. Each had acquired 24 aircraft.

boosting trade

the arrival of The fighter jets French should help relieve some of the indian army. Its military denounce long-standing insufficient equipment for them to show themselves to the height of the geopolitical challenges of the region. In addition to the old enmity with neighbor pakistan since independence, India is facing the growing power and assertiveness of China on the asian continent. The purchase of these Burst will allow him to modernize its air fleet aging, to much made up of Russian aircraft end-of-life. But this order does not address skill not fully the needs of its air force. In 2015, it had only 35 squadrons of 18 aircraft, when she felt the need to at least 42.

“The indian army has very heavy modernization needs,” says Corentin Brustlein, head of security studies at the French Institute of international relations (IFRI). India “is not on the same dimensions as Egypt or Qatar”, analyst, highlighting that”beyond the sale of these 36 (Burst), there is the prospect of an agreement even more that size that would live Dassault for many more years.” The export of arms to French had reached a record of € 16.9 billion in 2015, more than double the previous year, thanks to the first contracts for the sale of fighter Rafale abroad.

The contract is expected to give a boost to the trade between France and India. In 2014, the last year for which statistics were available, this amounted to 7.9 billion euros.